Chapter 100: Reputation and Respect
Evening.
Rhys and the crew left Lizzie's Bar.
Gloria and David stayed behind. While Lizzie's wasn't exactly a fortress, compared to two unarmed civilians, it was a hell of a lot safer than the street, especially with the Mox guarding them.
"So, what's the plan now?" Maine asked from the driver's seat of Susan's borrowed car.
"Hey, how about we head over to my place for a few drinks? You guys are back, we gotta celebrate! I'll call Dorio, Rebecca, Kiwi, everyone. Drinks are on me!" Jackie beamed from the passenger seat.
Since Rhys had returned, Jackie felt like he had a backbone again. When the crew left, he'd been stuck in Night City alone, treated like a punching bag. Now that they were back? Jackie had ideas.
No one wants to give me gigs? Treat me like I'm invisible?
Let's see you try that shit now, you fixer bastards.
"Hmm... let's hit the Afterlife instead," Rhys suggested after a moment. He smiled. "Rogue called me. Asked when I was coming by. Seems she has something to say to us, too."
"Alright, Afterlife it is. Let Kiwi and the others know," Maine nodded.
Sasha called Dorio, while Rhys messaged Rogue to let her know they were en route.
Lizzie's and the Afterlife were close, just a few blocks away. The drive took less than twenty minutes.
The Afterlife was packed. Claire stood behind the bar, listening to the radio, looking bored.
Nearby, another group of mercs was arguing. A month ago, a guy named Bones had led half the bar out into the street, shouting about fighting corporate tyranny. In reality, they'd just blocked traffic and annoyed the NCPD.
Honestly... Claire didn't think they'd helped Rhys at all. Subjectively, Bones wanted to help, but his method was stupid, and he lacked the power to back it up.
Fight the corps? Heh... he got chased by the cops for a few days and laid low for weeks.
Now that the heat had died down, the bastard was at it again.
BANG!
Bones, aka Chris Libiston, slammed his fist onto a metal table, face red with anger. "It's because of assholes like you that people like Johnny and Rhys end up sacrificing themselves for nothing!"
"Shut up, Chris! You're pushing forty! Rebellion? Ideals? Is that really what you should be talking about? Did you even make rent for tonight? Man, you haven't closed a gig in ages!"
"Fuck you, Mabry!" Bones flipped him off. "You can stay neutral, but don't kick a man when he's down! Why is that so hard for you to understand?"
"Fighting the corps... who does that help? It helps us! The people getting squeezed by the corps until we have no way out!"
"But you? You bunch of bastards! Not only did you not join in, you mocked his choice behind his back! Do you really think you're in a position to laugh at him?"
SLAM!
A table flipped nearby. A man with a chrome jaw and spider-web tattoos on his neck stood up, glaring. "You want to worship him as an idol, fine. Just don't assume everyone else is as stupid as you."
"He was just an arrogant kid. Fighting the corps? In the end, he just killed one unimportant corpo-dog. You're in your thirties, Chris, and you're worshipping a kid who barely had hair on his balls? You're really moving up in the world, huh?"
"Lake's right. What Rhys did was all thunder and no rain. Look around. Nothing changed. Night City is still Night City, Arasaka is still Arasaka. But he's gone," another merc laughed.
Someone else chimed in, "Exactly. It's been a month. Outside of our circle, how many people even remember what he did? That's the world we live in. People would rather watch celebrity gossip than hear about a cyberpsycho zeroing an exec."
"You... you motherfuckers!" Bones stood up, furious, ready to fight.
His friends stood with him, backing him up.
Bones stared them down, rage boiling in his chest.
Did he admire Rhys?
Hell yeah, he did.
Just like the stories his father told him about Johnny Silverhand when he was a kid. He had zero resistance to people who stood up to the corps.
Plus, his own life made it impossible to like them. Fuck, who likes corps except corpo-dogs?
His home destroyed by a corp, his family hurt by a corp, and now he was a "bottom-feeder" because of a corp.
Living day to day on booze and blood money.
Until that day on the news. Seeing and hearing that young man speak his truth to the whole world... Bones's dead, withered heart had ignited. A shiver had run down his spine.
He couldn't fight the corps. He was just an average merc. But... that kid could.
Bones liked punk music. He had Samurai albums in his car. But like most people, he didn't really know what "punk" meant.
Crazy clothes, vulgar language, piercings, tattoos, screaming as loud as you can... was that punk?
Maybe.
But that perception changed that day.
The black-haired kid on Channel 54, talking to the corpo-dog, defined his own punk spirit.
Punk... is the spirit of expressing yourself against societal constraints. Not to change society, but to transcend it. To resonate.
In the end, everyone's punk was different. What mattered was that it was what you wanted, the voice you wanted to scream.
But his will hadn't been inherited by everyone. In the first few days, many people supported Rhys, seeing him as an anti-corpo symbol, a potential leader.
The net was full of posts about Rhys's story. Some true, some fake, some calling for unity.
If edgerunners really united... that power couldn't be ignored.
Look at Rogue. She ruled the underworld. Was it because of a massive gang?
No. Rogue had no gang affiliation.
She relied on mercs. But even Rogue wouldn't claim to control half the mercs in Night City.
"What? Got a problem? You wanna go?"
Mabry rolled up his sleeves, revealing thick, silver-plated cyberarms covered in gruesome graffiti.
"Let's go! You think I'm scared of you?!" Bones shouted back.
Behind the bar, Claire sighed. She tapped her knuckles on the counter.
"Hey. If you're gonna fight, take it outside. Break anything in here, and you pay with your lives."
"Come on, Bones! Get out here!"
"Mabry, teach him a lesson!"
"I got two hundred on Mabry! Bones hasn't tuned his chrome in ages. He's gonna fall apart!"
"Haha, five hundred here!"
"Three hundred on Mabry finishing him in three minutes!"
The prospect of a fight electrified the Afterlife.
Everyone was a merc. They lived for this shit.
Anyone drinking here at this hour was waiting for a gig or just killing time. A free show? Hell yeah.
Bones drew a knife from his belt and walked towards Mabry.
Mabry sneered.
He was picking this fight now because he remembered what happened a month ago.
Bones had called for help. Mabry refused. Bones mocked him.
And the result?
The ringleaders got chased by the NCPD for disturbing the peace. Some got arrested, some went into hiding.
In Night City... disappear for a month? A week? People forget you. You get marginalized.
So now, the tables had turned. Back then, Bones had the crowd. Now... Mabry did.
"Come on. I'm gonna rip your arms off!" Mabry looked down at the skinny man, grinning savagely.
Bones rolled his eyes, his red optics locking onto Mabry. "Don't just run your mouth. Show me what you got. I could beat your ass back then, and I can beat it now."
"Fuck you! You're just banking on being an old-timer. Guys like you should just die and make room for the new blood," Mabry spat. "Average merc lifespan is thirty. I'm gonna flatline you tonight so you stop dragging down the average."
Trading insults, they headed for the exit, planning a deathmatch in the open space outside.
But as they approached the door, the crowd didn't part. The people at the back weren't watching them. They were staring at the entrance... shocked.
"Move! Are you deaf?!" Mabry shouted impatiently.
Bones stayed silent, calculating how to take Mabry down quickly.
Mabry shoved his way through. He reached the door, and the crowd finally parted.
Emmerick, the bouncer, was standing there as usual. In the Afterlife, guests came and went, but Emmerick was eternal.
Always a scowl, always silent, like everyone owed him eddies.
But now... Emmerick's expression made Mabry and Bones freeze.
What... the hell?
Emmerick is smiling? Like a customer service rep?
A group of people walked in.
Emmerick held the door open, hands clasped in front of him, bowing slightly. He beamed at the leader of the group. "Rogue's been waiting for you. Come in, she's right over there. I'll have someone show you..."
"Wait, why are you being so nice?" Rhys looked at Emmerick, suspicious.
"You must be joking..." Emmerick's smile faltered, looking awkward.
"Come on, you know why!"
Maine threw an arm around Rhys's shoulders, laughing loudly.
"We pulled off that crazy shit and came back to Night City in one piece! Rhys, don't let Emmerick's size fool you. He's sharp!"
"Exactly. Emmerick sees everyone—corpo agents, famous fixers, ambitious mercs. He knows how to read the room better than anyone in this city," Dorio added with a smile.
Rhys nodded and extended his hand for a shake. He'd always liked the big guy from the game.
But before Rhys could complete the gesture, Emmerick bowed lower, angling his body so his shoulder met Rhys's hand in a deferential bump.
Rhys: "..."
"Please." Emmerick lifted his head, smiling.
He wasn't stupid. Guarding the Afterlife meant dealing with big shots and psychos every day. He knew who to respect.
And Rhys... Emmerick knew exactly where this guy was headed.
Mercenary?
No... this guy was going to be Rogue's partner. A guy like this wouldn't settle for being a subordinate.
Rhys and the crew walked into the Afterlife. Jackie puffed out his chest. He was naturally huge, and with his chest out... it was a sight.
He made some of the women in the bar feel inadequate.
That is what you call a chest.
You could rest a drink on those pecs!
The crowd parted, creating a path. Rhys walked through, absorbing the stares. The respect.
He heard whispers, mostly shock and disbelief that Rhys and Maine's crew had actually returned.
"Hey, Claire!" Sasha waved from behind Rhys.
Claire looked surprised, then broke into a wide smile. "Welcome... back. What can I get you?"
"Later. We're seeing Rogue first," Rhys said.
"Sure. We'll catch up after," Claire nodded, unsurprised.
"This way!" A large black man shouted.
It was Crispin Wayland. He patted his belly, grinning at Rhys. "You're a legend, man. I thought we were about even, but looking at you now? You're way ahead of me. Come on, Rogue's been waiting."
Following Wayland, they entered Rogue's private booth—the one reserved for real business. No one got in without an invite. Wayland guarded this door. And considering Wayland had more chrome than Rebecca's current tank-build, his combat ability was no joke. He was a key player in the Arasaka raid in the game, after all.
(Why compare him to Rebecca? Because Rebecca currently had the most chrome in Maine's crew. Do you even know what a loli-tank is?)
Claire placed two bottles on the bar, intending to bring them to the booth herself. Business meetings needed drinks.
She looked up at the frozen crowd. Especially Mabry and Bones.
Their expressions were polar opposites. Mabry was pale, terror in his eyes, shrinking into himself. If there was a hole in the floor, he would have crawled into it.
Bones?
His face was flushed with excitement. He stood tall, almost seeming taller, his eyes following Rhys with hero-worship.
"Alright, are you fighting or not? If not, sit down and stop blocking the door," Claire sighed.
At her words, Mabry and his cronies slunk out of the Afterlife.
Fear.
Real fear.
Maine's crew was already famous. Killing a fixer and wiping out Wraiths had put them on the map.
But the Japantown incident... that confirmed it.
These guys are monsters.
Less than ten people, and they slaughtered hundreds of Tyger Claws, wrecked half a district, and killed Arasaka agents and execs.
Who wouldn't be afraid?
Claire watched Mabry and the others squeeze out the door, a scornful sneer on her lips.
Heh.
She rolled her eyes. She didn't say anything. No point.
There were too many people like Mabry. If she hated every single one, she'd never stop scowling.
But...
She looked at the closed door next to the restrooms, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Quite... a change."
"In such a short time... reputation and respect. Heh... I wonder what he'll become in the future."
Claire stared at the door, lost in thought.